Not exactly downtown development news....but important to the overall health of STL and KC...

July 1, 2008
Missouri Provides $5 Million For Improved Amtrak Service

Will Fund New Track Capacity on Busy Cross-state Route

Reliability of Kansas City to St. Louis trains operated by Amtrak for the Missouri Department of Transportation can improve, thanks to $5 million provided by the Missouri state legislature and approved by Gov. Matt Blunt to increase track capacity on the route. The Missouri Mules (Trains 311, 313, 314 & 316) provide twice-daily round trips across the state and have been plagued by lengthy delays due to heavy freight traffic on the Union Pacific Railroad line.

“This is great news for Missouri,” said MoDOT Director Pete Rahn. “This funding will lead to improved service, helping make Amtrak trains an even better travel alternative.”

New track extensions, called sidings, will reduce bottlenecks between Kansas City and Jefferson City in west central Missouri. These parallel tracks can allow trains to pass each other without having to stop. In addition to the state appropriation, MoDOT is seeking an additional $5 million in federal matching funding from a new Federal Railroad Administration program.

“This marks a major change in Missouri’s approach to passenger rail,” Rahn added. “State-supported Amtrak service has been running between Kansas City and St. Louis since 1979 and each year legislators have budgeted only enough money to operate the trains; nothing to build improvements. This capital improvement funding shows a new level of commitment by our legislators to Amtrak service.”Missouri Senate Leader Mike Gibbons was instrumental in the legislative push to provide the additional funding.

"As gas prices continue to rise, Missourians need and deserve a reliable and affordable alternate mode of travel,” he said. “This funding allows trains to pass without delay, relieves congestion and will improve on-time performance of passenger rail, meaning it will be a real option for travelers.”

Improvements on the line could not be occurring at a better time. Ridership between Kansas City and St. Louis increased sharply in April and May, compared to the same period last year.

“Much of this route is a single set of tracks and Amtrak trains share the limited capacity with numerous freight trains,” said Michael Franke, Amtrak Assistant Vice President – State Partnerships. “Investments in infrastructure have been sorely needed for passenger trains to operate more reliably between St. Louis and Kansas City."

“This capital funding is an important first step in addressing the capacity of this heavily-used corridor and such investments in the infrastructure will ultimately lead to improvements in train performance,” Franke added.

A study of chokepoints on the route was completed in 2007 by the University of Missouri-Columbia and siding construction and extensions were found to have the most immediate prospect for service improvements.

“This study forms the basis of discussions with Union Pacific Railroad as to how the project will be implemented, and discussions with the railroad on how the project will take shape will begin in the next few weeks,” said Brian Weiler, MoDOT Director of Multimodal Operations. “These improvements will also complement Union Pacific’s own improvements near the chokepoints at the Gasconade and Osage rivers.”

This proposed project will be near the large Washington University in St. Louis Medical Center and the newly redesigned Kingshighway Blvd./I-64 single-point interchange.

Hotel developer Charles Drury and associates gave the public on Tuesday an early glimpse of their still-evolving proposal for two 16-story hotels overlooking Forest Park along Kingshighway, just south of the newly opened Kingshighway and Interstate 64 interchange.

The approximately $100 million hotel project would be the largest in terms of size and expense for Drury Development Corp. since the family-owned business built its first hotel in Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1969.

The Kingshighway project would include two hotels, each with 345 rooms, three levels of underground parking and some surface parking. It would cover four acres, some of it on land no longer needed for the highway interchange that Drury Development wants to buy from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The building, to be called "The 411", is a $12.7 million development project.

With plans for a green roof, grey water recycling and rainwater reuse, Heller plans to get the building certified in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Development, a designation for environmentally friendly projects.

To be built on what is currently industrial property, this is to be located in St. Louis City's Central Corridor - near the Central West End, the growing Manchester Strip, Cortex, across from St. Louis University, and near the burgeoning Washington University Medical Center.

The initial phase of The Villages at Forest Park, Koman Properties plans to develop a neighborhood retail center featuring more than 143,750 s.f. of retail space, with a possible second phase featuring multiple major anchor tenants. The property has been purchased.

Located on the Washington Avenue corridor, the $14 million renovation of G.W. Lofts, a six-building, 60-unit rental community in Midtown St. Louis, has been completed. The project borders downtown St. Louis. The development was originally a warehouse for the Edwin F. Guth Lighting Co.

Blue Urban of St. Louis is excited to announce all 36 of 36 units in Ballpark Lofts #9 have SOLD OUT!!! Ballpark Lofts #9 is the Cupples Warehouse closest to Busch Stadium. Cupples Station is an old warehouse district next to Busch Stadium. A Westin Hotel, offices, new restaurants and lofts/apartments have been built in the surviving 9 buildings.

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The Moonrise Hotel is set to open in 2009. Located in the Delmar Loop entertainment district, this seven-story, 124-room room building next to The Pageant theater will feature a comprehensive collection of moon-related trinkets, including a ten-foot revolving moon on the roof. A high-class restaurant, The Eclipse, will occupy the first floor.

Paric is the general contractor for the MacKenzie House which includes 12 acres at 3200 Laclede Station Road. The building includes a single multistory building with 210 apartments, 78 condos and 24,000 sq.ft. of retail space. Currently the site totals 160,000 sq.ft. of vacant space that will be raised to make way for the development, to be called MacKenzie Place at Deer Creek and The Shoppes at Deer Creek. A spring 2008 construction start date is planned, with a fall 2009 opening.

Units will range in size between 500 and 1,600 sq.ft. The development will offer 155 independent living units and 55 assisted living units. A theater with stadium seating, exercise and activity rooms, and salon and day spa are part of the plan.

The recently opened The Meadows at Lake St. Louis is an upscale lifestyle shopping center located in suburban Lake St. Louis, Missouri (St. Charles County). It will include Missouri's first Von Maur department store, which is scheduled to open in 2010.

__________________
Debating some people on the Internet is like debating dead people - it makes you look crazy so why bother? #BYE

At 700,000 square feet, the 11-story $235-million BJC Institute of Health at Washington University will be the largest single medical research facility ever to be built in the State of Missouri. It will be located at the Washington University in St. Louis Medical Center. BJC Institute of Health at Washington University in St. Louis will house laboratories and support facilities for an entity known as BioMed 21.

Construction began in the summer of 2007 on the new building, which will house not only BioMed 21 laboratories and support facilities but also two academic departments of the School of Medicine as well as some support operations of Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The University will be adding 240,000 square feet of research space, and the estimated total cost of the building will be $235 million. As a hub for BioMed 21, the building will provide space for five newly created Interdisciplinary Research Centers (IRCs).

The BioMed 21 IRCs will occupy two floors and other School of Medicine facilities will occupy another three floors of the planned 11 floors in the nearly 700,000 square-foot BJC Institute of Health at Washington University. The new Institute is at the southwest corner of Euclid Avenue and Children's Place, directly across the street from the McDonnell Pediatric Research Building, a joint project of the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital.

__________________
Debating some people on the Internet is like debating dead people - it makes you look crazy so why bother? #BYE

This proposed project will be near the large Washington University in St. Louis Medical Center and the newly redesigned Kingshighway Blvd./I-64 single-point interchange.

Hotel developer Charles Drury and associates gave the public on Tuesday an early glimpse of their still-evolving proposal for two 16-story hotels overlooking Forest Park along Kingshighway, just south of the newly opened Kingshighway and Interstate 64 interchange.

The approximately $100 million hotel project would be the largest in terms of size and expense for Drury Development Corp. since the family-owned business built its first hotel in Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1969.

The Kingshighway project would include two hotels, each with 345 rooms, three levels of underground parking and some surface parking. It would cover four acres, some of it on land no longer needed for the highway interchange that Drury Development wants to buy from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

I gotta say that this project is lame and I hope it doesn't happen so that eventually a better use of the land can be realized. The project does a poor job of addressing the street (it doesn't at all, really), and features a lot of surface parking w/ a green space "strip" that will never be used. Can you imagine walking next to this thing? It would be unpleasant, and I'm sure any pedestrian in the neighborhood would choose the other side of the street to walk, next to two-story homes & businesses. Plus, the renderings are teh suck. Looks like they were designed in a video game, like Sim City. I know it's an early design, but come on, architects will often work for free with the hopes of landing a job and can provide an attractive napkin sketch to sell an idea, at the very least. Lastly, this project will require the demolition of a handful of historic brick homes. This is a step in the wrong direction.